Yulon-Nissan eyes price stability amid competition

By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter

Thu, Dec 20, 2012 - Page 13

Yulon-Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), the third largest car seller in Taiwan, yesterday said the company has no plan to raise prices to reflect a stronger yen, citing severe competition in the car industry.

“Raising prices may decrease the sales of our products,” Yulon-Nissan chairman Tsay Wen-rong (蔡文榮) told a press conference when the company released its new family car, the Big TIIDA .

“Yulon-Nissan will refrain from being the first company to raise prices, and we will observe the market and the exchange rate of the yen before we make any decision,” Tsay said.

According to Tsay, Yulon-Nissan is expected to sell 40,800 cars this year, with a market share of between 11.7 and 11.8 percent, compared with 44,282 units and a market share of 12.04 percent last year.

Total car sales next year will rise to between 350,000 and 360,000 units, compared with less than 350,000 units this year, he said.

Tsay’s remark came after Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), the largest car seller in Taiwan, said earlier this week that it was reportedly considering raising prices by between 1 percent and 1.5 percent. Hotai distributes Japan’s Toyota and Lexus models in Taiwan.

“Before its recent depreciation, the yen had been appreciating against other currencies for the past two years, causing great losses to our suppliers in Japan,” Hotai public relations manager Yu Shiao-chung (喻曉忠) said by telephone.

Hotai’s price hikes will possibly take place after the Lunar New Year to minimize the impact on sales, Yu said, while stressing that the range of price increases had not been decided.